


Memory Day Distractions

by silveradept



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 10:19:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11895651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Toph comes to visit the shop while it's closed to try and get Iroh to cheer up after his annual remembrance day goes less well than planned.





	Memory Day Distractions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afinch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/gifts).



"Most of my customers prefer to come by my tea shop during the time when it is open," Iroh said, without turning to face the new person in his shop. "Your tea is brewing, all the same."

"I don't like having people look at me," Toph said flatly, closing the doors to the ship behind her.

"At this point," Iroh replied, with a call laugh, "everyone's attention seems to be focused on my nephew. There's quite a bit of open talk about his prospects as a fine marriageable young man, now that he is the respected and honorable Fire Lord."

"Does he still come by to visit?" Toph asked, finding her usual seat by the Pai Sho board.

"Less frequently now that he's put himself on the task force to create the republic city," Iroh said grumpily. "It seems that his distinguished career in the Fire Nation these past ten years means he no longer has time for his uncle."

"Sounds like he needs to get his priorities rearranged." Toph grinned and cracked her knuckles. "I'm pretty sure I could--"

Toph's declaration was cut short by the sound of tea being poured into the cups Iroh had brought with him. On her first visit, she'd nearly struck Iroh in surprise when he'd appeared near her with the kettle and the cups. She still startled visibly when it happened, but she'd managed to curb the instinct to hurt him.

"Why can't I hear you like everyone else? Even Twinkletoes wasn't as light on his feet as you are," she asked, before sipping her tea.

"You are still too fond of hearing yourself talk to be able to listen," he replied, amusement suffusing his voice. "My nephew still sometimes believes the correct exercise of power is to make as much noise as possible so that others are afraid of you. You two might make a lovely match."

Toph ignored the suggestion. As much as everyone had raved about the idea of the Fire Lord marrying an Earth Princess as a sign of reconciliation, Toph knew that Zuko's heart was with Mai. Not to mention that there wasn't an Earth Princess who would even consider the idea. So the idea had quietly died out.

Toph heard Iroh clack a tile on the Pai Sho board, illuminating the layout for a brief second as the sound waves rippled out. She frowned at realizing that he had reset the board to the way it was the last time she had left, instead of trying to play from the much weaker position she had arranged the board in while he was supposedly distracted cleaning up the shop.

"You don't miss much, do you?" Toph said, sipping again.

"I am an old man running a tea shop," Iroh replied. "There is more that I miss in a single day than you would miss in several years."

Toph set her tea cup down on the saucer and turned in the direction that Iroh had last been. "I'm usually the one with all the spires facing outward. What's gotten to you today?"

Iroh sighed, then drew in another breath and let it out. "I do not believe you are so obtuse as to not know what day it is."

"Sure," Toph replied blandly, clacking a piece onto the Pai Sho board. "But you go out of your way to try and and make everyone happy every year. Did nobody fall for your charms and the story of making it up to your son?"

Toph felt the heat from Iroh's next breath and picked her next words more carefully.

"What happened?"

"As you aptly observed, there were not many opportunities to assist people this year. I left my offering at my son's grave, but I was the only one there. Many of the grave sites from Ozai's war against the Earth Kingdom have grown over with weeds and no longer see visitors. Perhaps their families are also swept up in the fervor over the new city. Prosperity makes us all happier, but also much less dependent on other people."

"So? Not everyone believes in filial piety as much as you do. Some of them probably want to forget..." Toph trailed off, remembering a few people she had known that hadn't made it to the other side of the war.

"There were no children to play with, no stubborn animals to move, no crop rows that needed planting. And the worst was that there were no pretty women to say hello to, until you came."

"Aww, that's too bad, you old...wait, you think I'm pretty?"

It was a practiced routine between them, one that Toph felt kept them both safer. It was easier to pretend that Iroh was just a handsome lech with an eye for women much younger than him than to admit that Iroh might actually be a genuinely good person worth seriously thinking about. She'd already dealt with enough crap as it was about not being able to see. The last thing she wanted was to have people assume that the relationship they had would only work because she was blind and didn't see the aging body in front of her. Or assume that she was with him because he had money (from a _tea shop_?) or power (because Fire Lord Zuko was his nephew).

Toph liked him because he didn't try to pretend to be anything. He could very easily be the most feared and dangerous firebender anywhere in the world (and had been, at one point), but instead he chose to run a tea shop and let people believe he was a doddering old man who liked Pai Sho. She'd challenged him once. She used a giant stone as the final exam for the metalbending students that it took her a little effort to lift. He'd picked it up with one hand _while she had been trying to push it down with all her bending might_.

She wasn't sure if he knew how much that had excited her about the prospects of what they could do together and reassured her that she couldn't hurt him. 

"All young women are pretty to these old bones," he said, the usual response to her tease, a return tease that was both honest and that reminded Toph that he wasn't thinking of her as a wife or someone to settle down with. She still had far too much to do with her life before thinking about children. Or worse, having to be an aristocratic wife again.

"Oh, yeah? You've fallen into my trap, old man! Despair while I crush your Pai Sho plans!" Toph cackled, executing a complex maneuver of pieces.

Iroh sipped his tea and studied the board, contemplating everything with a stillness that reminded Toph of the ocean. Whatever might be going on underneath, Iroh's face and body gave no hint of anything but placid calm.

"Distractions are excellent tactics to use in war," Iroh said, "as well as in trying to cheer someone up from a bad day. A good general, however," he said, picking up a single piece and moving it only a short distance on the board, "can see through the distractions and place their troops accordingly."

"A sight metaphor for the blind woman," she deadpanned back at him.

"A distraction," he said, kissing her on the cheek.

Toph blushed a little at the kiss. They'd done more than kiss, of course, but Iroh kissed in a way that advertised exactly how he would be as a lover - firm, talented, intuitive, and paying attention. Toph felt his hands supporting her very close to the places he enjoyed touching the most, and her blush intensified. 

"That color suits you," Iroh said. "Even if you have nothing to be embarrassed of."

Toph kissed him back, on the lips, feeling his muscles tense from her efforts, before jumping out of her chair.

"Well, the day's not done yet. If you want to have another try at making someone's day, I know a young woman who would really enjoy being chased through the city before going to bed with her favorite dirty old man. If you want, I can lead you to her. But you'll have to decide quickly." Toph bounded out the door, trying to collect as much of a head start as she could before Iroh gave chase.

Iroh cleared and washed the dishes from the table, inspected the Pai Sho board, moving his piece back into the correct place he had played it, instead of the space it had moved to in Toph's exuberance, and gently closed and locked the door to the tea shop, whistling to himself as he strolled in the direction of the chaos Toph was leaving in her wake. They both knew how the night would end. The only remaining question was how long they wanted to play first.


End file.
